Tech Tip: Finding Your Roots, Free

By

Richard Carlton

-

19th Mar 2018

1039

Q. Why do genealogy sites charge money for access to public records that are supposedly free? Is there any easy way to get to this information anyway?

A. Viewing public records is typically free if you go to the municipal or religious archives and look them up yourself, or the organization has digitized and posted them. However, if a genealogy company took the time to scan paper-based records from various sources around the world, index them and make it easy to search through mountains of material from the comfort of your own home, you will mostly likely be charged at some point.

Photo

The National Archives site has a selection of free public records and guides to help document the branches of a family tree.Credit
The New York Times

A company’s custom software for creating a visual family tree and access to community forums are also perks of being a paid customer. Many of the bigger services, like Ancestry and MyHeritage, have a free trial membership you can use to see if a subscription is worth it to you. But you may be asked to provide a credit card up front.

FamilySearch.org, a free site run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has a big collection of digitized records available online for general use, too. (Knowledge of ancestral history is part of Mormon ideology).